Chapter One: Into the Depths
Featherwisp had memorized every word of every single one of Princess Twilight Sparkle’s letters to her mentor and friend Princess Celestia, and yet in none of those letters was it specified what to do if you accidentally killed all of your friends.
She had spent the past week waiting by the shore of the lake, hoping and praying to the long gone princesses that some sign of her friends would ripple the waters. It had been three days since she had slept, and even then it had been very little. Her dreams were filled with nightmares.
The sun was setting, framed by the large trees and rolling hills. The reflection of the warm light was painted along the water’s surface. At any other point in time, it would have been a beautiful sight. But this was the place where she had watched her friends die.
Featherwisp curled up in a miserable heap. Her mane was clumped and matted, filled with twigs and branches. Her coat was streaked with dirt. She hadn’t had a decent meal in weeks. She felt, and looked, quite horrid. But she didn’t know what else to do. She couldn’t bear to leave this spot, in case there was any hope of her friends being alive.
When she closed her eyes, she saw their faces. So she kept her eyes open. Waiting. Watching. Hoping.
“Still here, Featherwisp?” a calm, quiet voice broke the silence.
Feather sat up and looked around. “Who’s there?”
“A friend.” The bushes rustled and a tall, old mare stepped into the forest clearing. Her coat was a faded purple, her gray mane streaked with pale lavender. She wore a plain dress made of thin, yellow material. “You’ve been waiting here a long time.”
Featherwisp didn’t know who this mare was, but she couldn’t bear to send her away. It had been a while since she had somepony to talk to. “I can’t leave.”
“And why’s that?” the old mare wondered, sitting down beside her.
“Because they might be alive.”
“If you saw them die, how could they be alive?”
Feather closed her eyes and tilted her face upward. “I feel it. I feel them. I believe they’re alive in my heart.”
“If you believe it in your heart, then it must be true. Why have you not gone to them?”
She opened her eyes and looked up at the taller mare. “They were taken by kelpies! I can’t breathe underwater, and even if I could, they would capture me before I had the chance to find out what’s going on.”
The old mare smiled warmly at her. “But you know a clever spell, don’t you? You know exactly how you can go after them.”
“I don’t know if it will work,” she admitted.
“What’s the harm in trying?”
Before Featherwisp’s eyes, the kind old mare vanished, dissolving into particles of white light that floated throughout the forest. She blinked in shock. Her sleep deprived mind was having a hard time processing what had just happened.
The spell the mare had reminded her of was simple, but required concentration and a lot of skill. There was no way she could perform it in the shape she was in. There was nothing to do but curl up and try to get some rest. If her friends were still alive, surely they could wait a little longer.
Feather curled up once again and closed her eyes. Sleep overtook her almost immediately, pulling her back into her memories.
She was on the shore of the lake. The sun was shining down on her and she turned her face up to its warmth.
“Feather, focus,” a cheerful voice gently reprimanded her. “We’re here for a reason, silly, not to sunbathe.”
Featherwisp opened her eyes and smiled, looking at the blue-gray earth pony before her. “Right. Of course. Stopping a pending war, how could I forget?”
Sugar Spice smiled warmly. “Are you sure this is Kelpie Cove?”
“There’s no mistaking it,” another voice said as a brown unicorn with a blue and white mane stepped closer to the water. Thunder Strike poked one hoof into the lake. “I’ve studied the map carefully, and this is definitely the place.”
“But how do we get the kelpies to come out and talk with us?” Cobblestone wondered. His rusty red coat clashed terribly with the lush green trees surrounding the lake.
“Stay back from the water,” Lemon-Lime’s logical voice warned them. “If there are kelpies in that lake, I don’t think they’ll like it if we prance around too close to their home.”
Featherwisp nodded in agreement. “I don’t know what we’re getting ourselves into, but I’m grateful you all decided to come with me.”
Dynamite nudged her shoulder gently with his muzzle. “You’re our friend, Feather. We’ll never let you down. This is the way to get your freedom, right?”
She smiled gratefully at all of her friends, then looked back at the water. “Now, let’s figure out how to get the merponies to come out.”
Just as the words came out of her mouth, the surface of the water rippled and the head of a pony broke the surface. Instead of a mane, she had a long fin trailing from the top of her head down her neck. Water streamed down her scaly coat and dripped off of her. “No need,” she said in a smooth, exotic voice.
All of Feather’s friends jumped backward in fright, but she trotted forward to greet the strange creature. “Hello, my name is Featherwi-”
“I don’t rather care who you are,” the kelpie interrupted. “When my scouts told me that six pony folk were fraternizing along my shore, I didn’t quite believe them. What ponies would be foolish enough to stray this far from their beloved Equestria?”
Featherwisp swallowed. “W-well, you see…we came to speak with one of your princesses. About a matter concerning some sunken ships?”
The kelpie laughed. “We have no princesses here, little pony. There is only me. I am Queen Serpentine, leader of the kelpies.”
“Then stop sinking our ships!” Dynamite shouted.
Feather gasped and shot him a warning look over her shoulder. “Please, Your Majesty, why are you sinking our supply ships?”
“The sea belongs to the kelpies!” Serpentine hissed, swimming closer so that the ponies could smell the fish on her breath. “You ponies are the ones taking what doesn’t belong to you!”
“But Princess Canary is talking about declaring war!” Cobblestone exclaimed.
“War?!” the kelpie snarled. “You think that you foolish ponies could ever defeat my kelpies in battle? We live underwater! There’s nothing stopping us from destroying your pathetic water vessels!”
“Please, Your Highness, I come from Princess Canary myself,” Featherwisp stepped forward another step. “She’s very upset with the loss of these ships. We have powerful magic. I fear that if you don’t stop sinking ships, my mother might do something dreadful!”
“Ah, so you’re the offspring of that foolish Princess,” Serpentine hissed. “I should have known. You’re just as bold and annoying as she was.”
Feather was getting the feeling that ‘foolish’ was this kelpie’s favorite word.
“You tell your pathetic mother that if she ever makes another threat against my kelpies, we will double our attacks on your trade ships.” She smiled suddenly, as if a wonderful idea had occurred to her. “Or perhaps, you’ll never get the chance!”
“FEATHER, WATCH OUT!” Dynamite shouted, biting her tail and yanking her backward.
Several large kelpies burst out of the water and charged up the shore towards the group of ponies. Feather’s friends screamed and scattered, but they never stood a chance of escaping the massive merponies, even on land the creatures were swift.
Featherwisp rolled onto her hooves. “Stop! Please, stop!” she called desperately.
One of the kelpies barreled towards her, but a streak of indigo connected with its side and sent it sprawling in the sand. Dynamite let out a cry of victory and pounced on the fallen kelpie, only to be trapped underneath as it rolled over. He struggled and bit at its scaly skin.
Cobblestone was squashed under two. Lemon-Lime was caught by the ponytail in another’s mouth. They had seized her friends, all of them.
Featherwisp stood alone.
“Leave that one,” Serpentine instructed coldly, glaring at her. “I want Queen Canary to know just how dangerous we are.” She disappeared underneath the water, and the rest of the kelpies went to follow her.
“Wait!” she shrieked as her friends were dragged towards the lake. “They can’t breathe underwater! Please! They can’t breathe!”
But her cries went unheard as her struggling friends were pulled beneath the surface of the water and down into the depths of the lake.
Featherwisp galloped across the shore, staring down into the lake. Just beneath the water, she saw the faces of her friends as they reached up to her desperately. And then they were no more, disappeared into the deep water.
Feather awoke in a cold sweat, but well-rested nonetheless. It wasn’t the first time she had relived the memory of her friends being taken away, but she prayed it would be the last. Because now, she was going to save them. Or, at least try.
She stood up and stretched. The forest floor was not the most comfortable place to sleep for a filly that had grown up in a palace, but she couldn’t complain about it. She had to rescue her friends.
Feather slowly trotted towards the lake, dipping her front hooves in the water. Not far from the edge of the water, the sand disappeared and became a cliff leading down into the kelpie kingdom. She had never swam before, but she hoped this spell would work well enough that she didn’t have to worry about that.
Backing away from the water, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. It wasn’t all that complicated of a spell, but it required all of her concentration. Her horn tickled a little as she felt her magic pour out from it and wrap around her body. Never once had she felt her own magic wrap around herself. Unlike her mother’s, it was a calm and warm presence. Her hooves were lifted off the sand as a layer of overglow burst out from her horn, wrapping her in a second layer of pale blue magic.
She grunted in concentration, focusing on the scaly bodies of the kelpies. The way their ‘manes’ trailed down their necks like fins, and the way their back legs became one long tail.
Feather shot backward with a startled squeal, her back colliding with a tree. She groaned and sat up, rubbing her head. Her coat felt strange, almost hard somehow. She gasped, standing up on her two front legs, as the hind legs has melded together into one appendage. When she breathed, she felt her gills flap open against her neck. She didn’t need them when she wasn’t underwater, but it was strange to feel them trying to work.
Featherwisp’s attention turned towards the lake when she was finished admiring herself, and she began dragging her back half towards the water. How had the kelpies that had taken her friends been so quick? She was barely pulling herself across the sand at a snail’s pace.
It didn’t matter, she forced herself to think. Now was the time she saved her friends, if they were even still alive. They have to be alive.
With one last glance over her shoulder at the forest, she waded into the water and dove off the underwater cliff.
Author's Note
Hey, there!
So, this is my first ever fanfiction, and I have to say I'm super proud of this first chapter.
I'm already working on the second and hope to have it up soon!
If you like this story so far, please please please let me know so that I have some clue if I'm doing anything right.
Thank you so much for reading!
~S.A.
Kelpie Cove was a circular cavern that burrowed straight down, down, down until Featherwisp couldn’t tell how deep it went. There were hundreds of holes along the sides, most likely leading caves that burrowed far into the rock walls of the Cove. Below her, she could see kelpies of all colors, usually blues or greens, swimming around and going about whatever it was kelpies did on a daily basis. There was no sign of the scouts that Queen Serpentine had aforementioned.
Feather took a deep breath, then coughed and spluttered. Even though she found that she could breathe through the water, it still burned and tickled in an unpleasant way. When she looked down again, she nearly shrieked in terror as a kelpie swam upwards straight towards her!
She raised her hooves in front of her to protect herself, but the blow she’d expected never came. When she opened her eyes, a very friendly, very electric blue kelpie was hovering in the water in front of her.
“Hello!” he said brightly. Well, she thought it was a he. Kelpie anatomy was quite different from ponies. “I’ve never seen you before!” The strange kelpie swam in a circle around her, leaving a trail of bubbles in his wake.
Feather had no idea how he was talking, or how she could understand him. She was underwater. “Who are you?” she asked. Her voice came out as a spurt of bubbles, which floated away from her mouth and up towards the surface.
The kelpie smile brightly, revealing his sharp, fish-eating teeth. “My name is Wave Watcher. Your scales are fantastic! How did you get them that color?”
Featherwisp glanced down at herself and her new pale pink scales, the same color as her pony coat. “Oh, um…I was born like this?”
“They remind me of pearls!” he exclaimed happily, swimming another circle around her. “What’s your name, fishy?”
She hoped that ‘fishy’ was a friendly term and didn’t mean that he wanted to eat her. “Featherwisp.”
He wrinkled his snout. “That’s a weird name. Are you from around here?”
“Um, not exactly.” She laughed nervously, which sent a cold, unpleasant wave of water down her throat and out her gills. “So…I was wondering if you had heard anything about...ponies being taken from the surface into the Cove?”
Wave Watcher swam backwards in surprise. “You mean the freaky things without tails? They were so weird! They had FOUR LEGS!”
Featherwisp found herself smiling at this strange, excitable kelpie. “Do you know what happened to them?”
He nodded his scaly head. “I saw them taken down to the holding caves. They’re not that far down, if you want to go see the weird creatures yourself.”
“Oh, please! I…want to make fun of their weird legs! I’ve only ever heard about them in stories, you see.” She smiled, hoping this was a good enough reason for him to show her.
Wave Watcher nodded and flapped his fins. “Well, come on!” He swam in a somersault, then dove downward.
Featherwisp dove down after him, finding that her new fins were very good at scooping water and propelling her. She was almost as fast as Wave Watcher.
The kelpie led her down past levels and levels of caves to a larger opening with pointed rocks poking out from the top and bottom. It looked like a toothy mouth. Watery, fluorescent light glowed dimly from somewhere deep in the cave.
Wave Watcher shook his head. “No way, I’m going in there. Nuh uh, you’re on your own, fishy.”
Feather turned towards him and smiled. “Thank you so much. This means everything to me!” She swam into the tunnel without looking back.
The tunnel was longer than she had imagined; it had to have wound all the way around the cove at least twice. The light was coming from alcoves in the walls where glowing jellyfish were kept in large glass jars. She wanted to free them, but then how would she be able to see?
After a while, the cave turned slightly upwards. The water rippled above her. She put on a burst of speed and surfaced with a splash.
Feather found herself in a cave with a small lake taking up most of the space. There was an air pocket here, she realized. Her eyes explored the rest of the cave, but she froze when she saw the outcropping of stone where five ponies stood staring down at her with wide eyes.
“Featherwisp!” Dynamite cheered, flapping his wings and soaring towards her. He flew in small circles just above her head. “How did you get here? Are you alright? What happened?”
She found herself tearing up at just the sight of her friends. They were okay! She had found them, and now everything would be okay! All they had to do was find a way out of here. But she knew she could do anything with the help of her friends.
Featherwisp sank lower in the water self consciously, trying to hide her fins.
“Feather?” Lemon-Lime called from across the cave. “Your mane looks weird. Are you alright?”
She sighed and swam towards the shore, pulling her scaly body up behind her on the rocks.
All of her friends gasped.
“It’s just a transformation spell,” Featherwisp explained quickly, “It’s reversible!”
Sugar Spice smiled sweetly. “I think you look lovely.”
“Yeah, Wisp,” Dynamite agreed, landing beside her. “You don’t look any less pretty.”
She beamed at her wonderful friends, wanting to wrap them all in a hug.
Cobblestone and Thunder Strike trotted down from the large rock and closer towards the group. They both smiled at her.
Feather glanced towards the water. “Wait, there aren’t any guards?”
Thunder followed her glance. “It’s not like we could leave, anyway. We can’t breathe underwater and we’d never make it out of the cave and up to the surface without the speed of the kelpies. We’d drown before getting halfway.”
Lemon-Lime pouted. “I hate when he’s right.”
Featherwisp lost herself in thought, trying to picture any spell that might be of use to them. An awful thought popped into her head; she couldn’t believe she hadn’t realized sooner. “I don’t have my horn,” she whispered, horrified.
Her friends all looked at her.
“I don’t have one in kelpie form!”
“Don’t panic, Feather.” Sugar Spice nuzzled her shoulder. “We can find a way out of here without magic.”
“But she might be stuck in that form,” Thunder Strike worried.
Lemon-Lime flicked her tail in annoyance. “C’mon, Thunder, try and find the joy in something for once in your life. You don’t always have to be the worrywart.”
Featherwisp was beginning to panic. She was a unicorn, she had never not had a horn before! She felt limited, defenseless, and weak. Who was she without her magic?
“Wisp.” Dynamite pulled her away from the group and flapped down to stand right in front of her. “Look at me. You’re with us. It’s okay. We’ll figure out how to change you back.”
She nodded, taking a deep breath. “Alright. Okay. I’m okay. Let’s just figure out how to get out of here, and then worry about me.”
Thunder began listing off possible ways to escape. “Swimming is out of the question. That leaves digging a tunnel upwards through the rock or teleporting.”
“Of which we can do neither,” Lemon pointed out, sprawling out on the rock. “This is hopeless.”
“I could teleport,” he muttered to himself.
“It’s not hopeless now that Feather is with us,” Cobblestone piped up. “We can do anything together.”
“Even if we get out,” Thunder continued, “how do we stop the coming war with the kelpies?”
“I’m sure Wisp can figure it out!” Dynamite assured.
Featherwisp was not so sure of that. She didn’t have a clue how to get out of here, let alone how to stop a war. She was grateful for her friends’ faith in her though; nopony had really had any faith in her before she met these ponies.
“Well, isn’t this sweet?” a cold voice echoed around the cavern.
The group of ponies gasped and turned towards the water. Queen Serpentine herself was splashing up onto the rock to join them.
She smiled with her razor sharp teeth. “The gang’s back together again, hmm? And Featherwisp, you seem to have changed a bit since we last met.”
Featherwisp felt very uncomfortable in her new scales. “I-I’m not afraid of you, Serpentine!”
The Queen only smirked at her, then glanced over her shoulder. “Bring the traitor above the surface.”
Ripples spread out across the lake, making the water lap against the rocky shore. Three heads broke the surface. The two on either side belonged to deep green kelpies with narrowed eyes and grim expressions. The one in between them had unmistakably electric blue scales. He was breathing heavily. A gash above his right eye was dripping blood down the side of his face.
“Wave Watcher!” Feather gulped. “What did you do to him?”
“What I do to all traitors to my kingdom,” Serpentine sneered. “He can rot in here with the rest of you for all I care now.”
In response to her words, the two kelpies flanking Wave Watcher shoved him towards the shore and the smaller, weaker kelpie slid himself onto the rocks and collapsed beside Featherwisp.
She stared at him in shock. The gash above his eye was not his only wound, his body was covered with bleeding scratches. A wave of guilt washed over her and she turned to glare the kelpie Queen.
“How could you do this to one of your own kind?” she asked, her voice cracking.
Serpentine regarded her, a question in her eyes. “Do you really care for this pathetic creature?”
Feather’s eyes turned up. “How could you hurt him? He didn’t know who I was. He didn’t know what I was doing. He did nothing wrong!”
The Queen laughed darkly. “I’ll be sending word to Princess Canary. You better hope that she cares about you, or you’ll be spending the rest of your lives in a watery cave.” She disappeared under the water, her guards following.
Featherwisp rushed over to Wave Watcher’s side. “Thunder, do you know any healing spells?”
Her unicorn friend shook his head hopelessly. ‘”I’m sorry…”
She looked up at the ponies crowded around her. “We need to get out of here. Now. Before Serpentine can use us as bargaining chips.”
Author's Note
I really hope you liked chapter two!
I started this story three years ago, and it's grown a lot since then.
Please leave me a comment if you like it, it means so much to me!
